By james art Poker has always witnessed booms and busts. Right now is not a good time for poker rooms in Las Vegas. The Sahara casinolocated on the north end of the Las Vegas Strip, recently announced that it will be closing its doors in a few weeks. Another legendary poker room never again.
Here’s your last chance to play in the Sahara. The official shutdown day is November. Poker players don’t generate the same insane amount of revenue that slot machines can. Space is at a premium, especially on the Strip, so the bean counter decided poker was an expensive proposition. Once again, the suits working with Excel spreadsheets have made a decision that is simply an intrigue for poker players.
Sahara will renovate the poker room in favor of a slot area. The space will be redesigned as a test space for new slots.
“When it debuts in mid-December, the enhanced offerings will include special slot banks where players can be among the first in Las Vegas to play the latest test games from top gaming content providers,” said the general manager of Sahara Paul Hobson. “More details on this latest Sahara innovation will be announced soon.”
With every innovation in Sin City, there’s a die-hard poker player turned away.
Leading the glorious online poker boom, the Sahara Poker Room attracted locals and tourists alike, so it was a good combination for some low-stakes action. Sahara hosted fun daily tournaments. The poker room treated players to a huge deli sandwich that was free to all poker players during the evening tournament at 7:00 p.m. Even a few local homeless guys found out about the deli sandwich and showed up during the tournament for free food.
I played this 19:00 tournament a lot but never came close to winning it. He made it to the final table several times, but could never be the last one standing. Friends have sent it in the past, including the midnight tournament, but I’ve also done much better playing cash games there after dropping out for the tournament.
During the poker boom there was a poker room in almost every casino with 58 in Las Vegas and nearly 420 tables. Shortly after Black Friday, several rooms began to disappear.
By 2014, the list of closed poker rooms included the Palms, Tropicana, Circus Circus, Texas Station, Sunset Station, Silverton, Fitzgerald’s, O’Sheas, Ellis Island, Bill’s Gamblin Hall, The M Resort and El Cortez.
Shortly before the pandemic, another wave of poker rooms closed. The Strip lost Treasure Island, Monte Carlo, The Link (aka the old Imperial Palace), and Luxor. At the north end of the strip, the Strat kissed the poker goodbye. Just east of MGM, both Hooters and Hard Rock lost their rooms. There were off-strip accidents including Aliante, Plaza, Eastside Cannery, Suncoast and Arizona Charlie’s.
After the 2020 pandemic, Las Vegas closed numerous poker rooms or several never reopened. This sad list includes Binion’s, Excalibur, Green Valley Ranch, Harrah’s, Sam’s Town, Rio, Flamingo, Mirage, Planet Hollywood and Silver Sevens.
The Hard Rock took over the Mirage, which is under renovation. Seminole Hard Rock is a poker destination in Florida, so there are hopes that the Vegas Hard Rock will include a great poker room.
In the summer, the Venetian opened a new poker room, which is the largest in Sin City with 50 tables. It is located in the commercial arena between the Venetian and the Palazzo and is chic.
Caesar’s Palace temporarily closed its poker room while renovations took place. They said it would come back…eventually…but you never know.